Eighteen wickets tumble at Eden

As many as eighteen wickets tumbled on the first day at Eden Gardens as Hyderabad came roaring back after a poor batting performance. Ashish Reddy led the way with 5 for 30 as Hyderabad reduced hosts Bengal to 79 for 8, a deficit of 36 at stumps. Bengal, without their injured captain Manoj Tiwary, fell apart from a comfortable 39 for 1. Only opener Arindam Das resisted with an unbeaten 37 while Nos 4 to 9 registered single-digit scores. Reddy was supported by Anwar Ahmed's 3 for 30. The hosts had earlier justified their decision to field by running through the Hyderabad line-up in 37.1 overs. Quick bowlers Shami Ahmed and Veer Pratap Singh picked up seven wickets between them while only K Sumanth and Syed Quadri managed to get into the twenties.

Ajinkya Rahane's fall for 24 was the only sore point for Mumbai as they dominated Saurashtra in Rajkot. Aditya Tare and Wasim Jaffer set the tone when they put on 135 upfront after Rohit Sharma won the toss. Jaffer hit 12 boundaries in his breezy 79. Rahane, released from the Test squad to play Ranji Trophy, went caught behind after getting a start but Tare and Rohit took control. Tare faced 262 balls for his unbeaten 122 while Rohit hit three sixes as he motored to his second fifty of the season, to add to a double century and a hundred.

Devendra Bundela and Jalaj Saxena led a reasonable batting show from hosts Madhya Pradesh in Gwalior against Punjab. MP lost Naman Ojha cheaply after being asked to bat, but Saxena, who moved up from the lower-middle order to open the innings, ensured the hosts weren't bogged down. Saxena made a brisk 84 while Bundela carried on the accumulation with an unbeaten 92. There was a stage when Sandeep Sharma, currently the highest-wicket taker of the season, and Baltej Singh had reduced MP to 199 for 5. But Bundela found another partner in Rahul Bakshi, and the pair had put on 82 by the end of the day's play.

Shivakant Shukla's century helped Railways recover from 90 for 3 against defending champions Rajasthan in Bhubaneshwar. The opening partnership was worth 55 after Railways chose to bat at their home ground but Aniket Choudhary's double-strike, including Railways captain Sanjay Bangar for 4, had them in some trouble. Shukla and Parag Madkaikar, though, settled down to revive the innings. The pair put on 146 before Shukla fell to Manjeet Singh towards the close of play. Madkaikar was unbeaten on a patient 70 with Ashish Yadav for company.